My view is that it’s useful for staff to have a more structured approach for evaluating processes and that SWOT can help with that. Here is the outcome of the work I did with those managers (using the example of the evaluation of a new system).

Strengths

What do you think works well with the system?

What have been the benefits of using the system?

What does this system give the customers?

How does it help you reduce waste, increase efficiency, improve quality of service?

How has the system improved the way you work?

Weaknesses

Is there anything that doesn’t work well?

Are there any weaknesses in the system?

Have you encountered any problems or impediments?

Is there anything you don’t think adds value?

Are customers saying there’s a problem?

Opportunities

What needs to be improved?

How could we do that?

What are we missing that could work well?

How can we overcome the weaknesses?

Threats

Is there anything outside the team / unit that is having a negative impact on the effectiveness of the system – that’s threatening its effectiveness?

In what ways could we mitigate that threat?

Over the last 15 years I have worked with hundreds of managers, including team leaders and supervisors, in organizations of all shapes and sizes. Many of those managers were, by their own admission, reluctant to manage.

Of course on a day by day basis they did manage people – they answered questions, allocated work, went to management meetings, and held some team briefings. But what they most often didn’t do is apply a focused and structured approach to managing their staff’s performance.

In theory, managers know they should be managing performance, that they should be using the review or appraisal system, and that they should be having dynamic discussions with their staff about their performance. But clearly there’s an obvious difference between knowing you should do something and actually doing it. And when managers don’t manage, the business suffers and so do their staff.

So what’s the answer? These are five steps I’ve seen applied, by my clients, with very positive effect:

Step One: Help managers to understand why performance management is important to the business

Do managers need help in understanding the value of managing performance? Do they need to understand why effective performance management is a critical commercial issue and how effective performance management impacts business success?

Only through getting this clarity can a manager gain the confidence that there will be some real business benefit derived from their efforts. Otherwise, why bother?

Step Two: Help managers understand why performance management is important to their staff

Do managers know that research shows that what people seem to want, and want quite badly, is to be well managed? That they want a strong, mutually supportive relationship with their manager based on interest and clarity?

Much of what ‘well managed’ means is effective performance management. The manager’s role in the satisfaction and the engagement of their staff can’t be overstated but often needs to be explained.

Step Three: Help managers to embrace their right to manage performance

Frequently the managers I work with seem to feel the need to gain permission to undertake probably the most important part of their role — managing performance.

They clearly know there are expectations of them as managers but they don’t feel they have somehow earned the right to manage.

Do managers need to understand the rights they have to manage? Do they know what those rights look like in practice?

Step Four: Give managers the tools and techniques they need to manage people’s performance

Do managers have access to a range of tools and techniques which can make the seemingly complex much, much simpler?

How can we expect managers to know, for example, that there is a simple way to give feedback about even the most ‘difficult’ performance issue so that the issue can be understood and accepted by the staff member?

Managers just do not have the time to work these processes out for themselves so they either waste a lot of time (and staff good will) on ‘trial and error’ or they just give up.

Step Five: Ensure that managing performance is a top priority for your managers

Do managers have ‘managing performance’ listed in their job description, their job objectives or anywhere else? I have heard hundreds of managers tell me that there is nothing written down or agreed that describes their responsibilities as a performance manager.

So why would a manager dedicate time and effort to an activity for which they are not held accountable, for which there is no reward, which appears to be just about the lowest priority of the business?

How can organisations expect their managers to undertake the complex work of managing their staff’s performance if:

• the manager does not know what being an effective performance manager looks like in practice in their organisation
• the manager is not held accountable for the effective performance management of their staff — it is not seen as an integral part of their job but something to be done when all of the ‘real work’ has been completed
• they are not acknowledged or rewarded for effective performance management?

In summary

It’s all about developing the ‘will’ and the ‘skill’. Helping managers to understand the importance of effective performance management, helping them develop the skills and then holding them accountable for applying those skills in practice.

“The process of getting activities completed efficiently with and through other people”

“The process of planning, leading, organizing and controlling people within a group in order to achieve goals”

“The activity of getting things done with the aid of people and other resources”

By way of contrast, take a look at this definition of management from Myron Rush:

“Management is meeting the needs of people as they work to accomplish their jobs”

Here we have the manager using their authority and power not to control but to serve the people they manage. So the manager is cast as the willing servant. That’s what I call different.

Rush proposes that:

“As the manager gives themselves to serving the needs of those under them they will make a happy discovery. People will voluntarily, eagerly, and continually meet their needs in return”

Too good to be true? Well maybe. But the more I reflect on this definition, the more inspiring I find it. On a practical level I see it as both a powerful and empowering management style, particularly in light of the research around the challenges of managing ‘Generation Y’ employees (more of which in future posts).

Within the context of employee engagement, who wouldn’t feel more engaged when working with a manager who’s main purpose was to help them meet their needs?

Would it be realistic to expect managers to take on the role of servant? A real challenge, of course, but I’m guessing there are many managers who would welcome the opportunity to work more collaboratively with their staff particularly if this style brought some of the ‘happy discovery’ that Rush proposes.

Here she talks about her experience of working with me, the impact it has had on her staff’s performance and, importantly, the impact it has had on her confidence and wellbeing.

Over to Sara….

Taking the right steps with Ladder Consulting

I am the kind of person that finds it easier just to do it myself instead of relying on my staff to do the work. What that means for me is that I am always overworked and tired. What it means for my staff is that they are not challenged and I tend to go through staff without really knowing why.

I met Joan through my business (she’s a member of the gym I own) and one day I happened to mention that I was having staffing issues and she asked me how I managed my staff. I said ‘what do you mean manage my staff? At this point I am just happy that they show up for work.’ And to be honest they are very reliable in that aspect of working for me!

Joan suggested that we meet outside of my place of business and discuss some steps I could take to improve my situation.

I have had different kinds of managers throughout my varied career; micro managers that watch every thing I do; selfish managers that never seem to be there for the staff.

I wanted to be the kind of boss that staff respected and wanted to be a part of my team. So therefore I set out to befriend my staff and let them pretty much do their own thing as long as the job was getting done. But as I said earlier, that meant that I was left to do most of the work.

After my first meeting with Joan I asked her to work with me to help improve the situation. Through the consulting sessions with her I learned that although I was friends with my staff, I did not expect anything from them. I had no set performance standards for my staff so they really did not know what was expected from them. I had staff that gave me exactly what I asked for — nothing!

So with Joan’s help, we designed performance standards that were clear and quantifiable. I started by listing all the duties that I wanted my staff to perform. Joan helped me to categorise and word them in a way that enabled me to communicate to my staff exactly what is expected of them. The performance standards also allow me to evaluate my staff in a professional manner.

Joan coached me through the first meeting where I presented these performance standards to my staff and truly helped me to clearly communicate and engage with them. I had immediate positive feedback from my staff and even enthusiasm for the job they needed to do.

Our workplace is a more positive and fun place to work. Everyone is clear on what is expected of them and the work is now getting done by the people who should be doing the work — my staff.

I am less tired and stressed and I finally feel I am building confidence in myself as a manager.

Would you like to achieve some of the results Sara has achieved? You can trial, for free, a tele-consulting session with Joan.

Contact me and I will send you details of how the sessions work, what you can expect to achieve and how to book a session.

Related posts

• Are you clear on what you want from the people you manage? Are they?
• Managing by numbers is easy — but how do I manage behaviours?

I've been meaning to clarify with you what I meant by 'assertive behaviour'

Well the theory is, according to the managers, that they can’t effectively manage the behavioural element of a person’s work e.g. the way the person manages their time, the way they build and maintain relationships, their ability to be solution-focussed, because these behaviours are subjective and unquantifiable. Therefore they cannot be measured and subsequently managed. But here’s the rub:

Why manage behaviours?

1. Behaviours are crucial to the success of your business. Can you be successful without your staff demonstrating the ability to manage their time, build and maintain effective relationships, develop practical solutions and so on?

2. Because managers also tell me they regularly judge their staff on their ‘attributes’ without being able to clearly define those attributes as behaviours. They say “he’s just not committed enough” or “she’s not a team player” or “he lacks creativity”. Without being able to define what being an “effective team player” looks like in practice how can you help the staff member improve in this area?

Managers know, of course, that behaviours are crucial to business success. What they sometimes don’t know is how to describe those behaviours.

How to define behaviours

Here’s a three-step process for defining the behavioural elements of the job:

Step One: Identify the Crucial Behaviours

The key questions to ask are:

• What are the behaviours that differentiate us from our competitors?
• What are the behaviours that contribute most to our success?
• What behaviours must a person demonstrate to be successful in this job?
• What do I want from the people I manage?

Step Two: Define the Behaviours

Having identified the behaviours, here are some methods for defining those behaviours. The overriding question you are seeking to answer is what does this behaviour look like demonstrated in practice?

Here are three approaches:

1. Think of someone who already demonstrates the behaviour. If, for example, you are trying to define “creativity” think of someone you consider to be creative and then note down the behaviours that person demonstrates in that area.
2. Ask yourself the question what would it look like? What behaviours would creative people demonstrate in your business? What would creativity look like in practice? What would a person need to do for you to consider them to be creative?
3. Turn the question around by asking what do people who aren’t creative do, or not do? You might think of someone who you think is totally lacking in creativity. What are the behaviours they are demonstrating, or not demonstrating, that makes you think of them in this way? It’s strange but it’s often easier to define what ‘it’ looks like done badly rather than done well.

Step Three: Writing the Behavioural Performance Standards

The skill here is in the language used and the discipline lies in the ability to focus on observable behaviours. In short, if you can’t watch someone doing ‘it’ or see the evidence of them having done ‘it’ then it’s unlikely you’ve described a behaviour.

Here’s an example:

“I don’t feel managing performance is appropriate for my staff, some of them are more experienced than I am—who am I to say what good performance in their job looks like?”

Employees’ rights at work are a well debated and largely well understood concept. Most managers have some understanding of the organisation’s legal duties with regard to the care of employees. And rightly so. Many managers, however, spend little time thinking about their rights as managers of people’s performance.

Here are some of the rights I believe managers must have:

The managers’ rights

• To explain and agree standards of performance for the job
• To expect their staff to consistently meet the agreed standards
• To monitor performance against the standards
• To give focused specific feedback on performance—the positive and less positive aspects
• To identify areas of under performance and to address those areas of under performance with their staff member
• To expect the staff member to take agreed actions to improve areas of under performance

I’m guessing you can think of more.

Can I bring your attention to the word ‘agree’ in the above statements? I’m not suggesting here that managers have the right to coerce or bully good performance out of their staff. That would be daft. I am suggesting that managers have the right to explain clearly and directly their expectations of their staff and to have positive assumptions about their staff’s willingness to perform to a high standard.

I’ve introduced the concept of ‘management rights’ to many managers and many of those managers have told me that understanding this concept has had a profound impact on their confidence. If we don’t believe we have the right to do anything, are we ever going to do it consistently and well?

And The Practical Application?

You could:

• Open a conversation with the managers in your business around the issue of the right to manage – what they perceive to be their rights and identifying any barriers to asserting those rights.
• Agree what rights the managers in your business have and what asserting those rights would look like in practice.
• Develop a ‘managers’ rights’ charter.
• Use the concept of the managers’ rights in coaching sessions with managers who appear reluctant to manage.

And of course if you need help with this, you know where I am.